Athens, 24/02/2010
“Panta rhei” – everything flows – said Heraclitus.
Abraham Lincoln once sent a message to the cotton workers of Manchester, who were unemployed because of their support for the blockade of Southern American posts in the war against slavery.
Lincoln memorably said
“The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues.”
Today, in that same spirit, I come to offer support and solidarity for the workers of Greece. I come to bring support for the unions of Greece. I come to say that Greece must not have to walk alone.
Let me be clear. I do not come to offer solidarity to the tax cheats of Greece, or to all those politicians and bankers who fiddled the books, or to those who falsified the accounts of a great nation.
I certainly don’t come to offer regard or respect to Goldman Sachs, advisers to the then Greek Government. Their so-called creative accounting was, in reality, cooking the books.
It seems to be that there is no financial rule that Goldman Sachs are not ready to break nor seeking to evade. Goldman Sachs are now exposed as the specialists in off balance sheet and under the table trading.
Now the true picture is clear. Now the full bill is being presented to the workers of Greece. Now, rightly, you are mobilised.
Today, the ETUC joins the call that the EU does not drive Greece into a too rigid, too difficult programme of austerity. We reject that road to ruin and poverty.
Today, the ETUC joins the call that the EU does not drive Greece into a too rigid, too difficult programme of austerity. We reject that road to ruin and poverty.
That is shock therapy which kills, not cures. No-one said that the doctrine of moral hazard should stop the rescue of banks when they were in trouble. It should not stop the rescue of workers when we are in trouble.
Instead, we call for EU assistance which is flexible, EU assistance which promotes social dialogue and which upholds the best traditions of the EU social model.
Instead, we call for EU assistance which is flexible, EU assistance which promotes social dialogue and which upholds the best traditions of the EU social model.
Other countries in trouble have promoted social pacts and understanding in which there is equality of sacrifice in the bad times, and sharing of benefits in the good times. This is the way for Greece too.
Greece is the cradle of Western civilisation and democracy. It taught Europe an enormous amount and now it deserves the help of others, provided the rich, the professionals, the banks, and the entrepreneurs in the black economy pay up – they must pay their share. For a start, they should pay their taxes!
We say: Support fairness, not privilege; care, not cuts; solidarity, not short-termism; Greece, not Goldman Sachs.
This is your fight; this is the ETUC fight. We stand together.
Thank you.